Flyfished in the rain for much of the day. Creek was fast and muddy, so I didn't fish it. Decided to try for Koi and Goldfish again. The cold snap of the previous week (a couple days with lows below freezing, and snow) seemed to have put the fish down. Few fish were seen. Managed to make do, however, and eventually caught 3 Koi and 1 Goldfish.
Flyfished an urban creek.
Caught my first Goldeye of the year:
Visited Unger Lake. Got skunked.
Visited Spanish Lake. Saw snakes, caught small crappies.
Went out after dinner in the drizzle to try for some bullheads on the fly. The water I selected was muddied up from recent rains. I could still see the bottom in shallow areas 12" deep or less. Fortunately, I spotted a few bullheads feeding there. I made presentations to them. Some I spooked, some I missed the strikes, but in an hour of trying, I managed to catch and land 4 Black Bullheads.
This is my 30th species on the fly rod in Missouri since moving here less than 9 months ago...not bad, considering this period spanned the winter months. After flyfishing in Iowa for @15 years, I'd caught 38 species there, based on my best recollections. So...30 in MO in less than a year feels pretty solid! Still some species scattered throughout the state I'd like to add to my MO fly rod list.... I made a quick list, they will be challenging!
Following some good rains, high water in the MO River and its tributaries, I hoped to find a local creek getting repopulated with fish from the MO River. The creek looked good! The big negative was we just came off a few cold days/nights in a row, with low temps in the 20's and 30's F.
A few quick splashes from fish on the surface, but none seen swimming around. It was like a desterted wasteland for the first hour or two of flyishing. Then I started missing some strikes. Then I caught 2 very small Grass Carp on back-to-back casts.
Then 23 minutes later, a nice 21" Freshwater Drum. And then the action just died.
Further downstream, I managed a Green Sunfish.
Then I drove to a place I'd seen a few Bullheads. It also has lots of Goldfish. I didn't see any bullheads this time, and the numerous smaller goldfish were not interested in the fly I was using. I finally found a bigger Goldfish that was willing to eat the fly. It measured 11"...beautiful fish!
After the Koi and Goldfish excitement, the rest of the month was fairly standard and somewhat mediocre flyfishing for me.
I caught Largemouth Bass, Hybrid Sunfish, Green Sunfish, Bluegills, Redear Sunfish, White Crappies, and another Golden Shiner.
